WILLIAMS MEDIA spoke with Henry Lynn about his experience and Myanmar's property market.

Can you briefly explain your business and what you do?

At Slade Property Services we offer a range of real estate services including Market Research, Valuation & Advisory, Development Consultancy, Investment and Joint Venture Advisory, Sales, Marketing and Leasing, on behalf of both landlords and tenants/purchasers (exclusive and non-exclusive).

Who is your typical client?

In the leasing department, my clients are International organisations, embassies and iNGOs, Multi-National Companies and local companies.

How do you best help a buyer or investor?

We always make sure we are always up to date with market knowledge and provide our clients full and detailed information to ensure that they make the right decisions.

How do you best help a vendor selling their property?

As we are always active agents in the market, we have the best knowledge of what buyers are looking for.

The first thing we do for clients who want to sell their property is to help them understand the advantages and disadvantages of the property, and give our expert opinion regarding commercial terms and make a list of selling points.

What are the defining moments in Myanmar real estate/tourism history?

The real estate market started booming in Yangon around 2012 when there were a lot of improvements in the political situation.

Demands in residential condominiums were very significant and that was when international real estate developers were interested to enter into Myanmar market.

What advice would you have for those looking to enter markets like Myanmar and set up a real estate business?

Since the government is very keen to see more foreign investment in Myanmar, they are taking steps to make things easier, faster and cheaper for investors to enter the market.

Therefore we would like to invite potential new business investors to come and visit us to see for themselves.

What would you like to see changed in the real estate industry in the next 2 years?

I would like to see the implementation of clear legal structures for all those in the industry. We need to see the permissions and restrictions on foreign buyers for their real estate purchasing more clearly and precisely.

I feel this will be a good step forward for the industry in general in Myanmar, and give confidence to foreign investors in our abilities as real estate agents.

What are the opportunities in the market at the moment?

There are a lot of market opportunities in Myanmar real estate and the most significant ones are in the residential and industrial sectors.

With the increased amount of residential units in recent years, the price and payment plans, at the minute, are more attractive and flexible than before so it is a good time to buy residential properties.

In the industrial real estate sector, we struggle to find international standard warehouses and logistics facilities so I would encourage the investors to grab this opportunity.

What advice do you have for people looking to buy or rent real estate in Yangon? Please touch on office space and residential space if you are comfortable with both or just focus on what you know best.

It’s a good time to buy residential properties because of the newly introduced longer payment plans, bank loans and reductions in price. For office tenants, I strongly suggest relocation to office towers if they are not already there.

The new office tower developments offer more reasonable rates and include many extras making them a much more attractive prospect for many companies looking to reduce their spend on office rent.

Who is currently entering the Myanmar market? What countries is demand coming from and are you noticing any trends?

Our regional neighbouring countries are more interested in the Myanmar real estate market. China, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia are the current key players.

I hope to see more investment from the western part of the world when there are improvements in politics, legal, banking, etc.

Where do you see the Myanmar real estate market in the next 10 years?

I believe Myanmar is one of the most promising markets in Asia so in the next 10 years, we will see many new tall buildings in the cities and Myanmar will be one of the main places offering good ROI across the real estate market.